Thom Browne did not puncture a spy balloon at New York Fashion Week

Last night, Thom Browne punctured all the anxiety that has collected around those spy balloons spotted in South Carolina. At his AW23 show – his first in New York since becoming chairman of the CFDA – models weaved around the husk of a deflated spacecraft, their feet plodding over a layer of sand as planets and stars dangled from the ceiling. An allegory of espionage would have made sense given the current news cycle, but the set-up was in fact a reference to The Little Prince. 

As the audience took their seats, an overhead voice ventriloquised some of the novella’s most famous lines: “It is only with the heart one can see rightly what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in 1943, the book encourages its readers to see the world through a child’s eyes – hence all the clownish silhouettes, naive illustrations, and overblown bows. The collection followed the chronological order of the book, opening with the little prince finding his feet in an oversized jacket, followed by models in silk dresses evoking the six planets he visited on his voyage.

Then came “the adults” in austere bulwark-shouldered tailoring, “the kids” in patchworked suits worn with tulle skirts and spliced kilts, and Precious Lee in a topsy-turvy wedding dress. That last part wasn’t a direct reference to the book, but a child would probably make up their own ending anyway. The show climaxed with Josh Groban singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel – or the terraces of Anfield stadium – while Browne sprinted from the wings to bring his partner (Andrew Bolton) a box of Valentine’s chocolates. Click through the gallery above to see the rest of Thom Browne’s show at the AW23 edition of New York Fashion Week.